HYDERABAD: A division bench of the High Court on Wednesday granted four months’ time to the Andhra Pradesh government for constituting a ‘state security commission’ and a ‘police complaints authority’ for redressing the grievances of the public in respect of police action.The bench of acting chief justice Ramesh Ranganathan and justice M Ganga Rao passed this order on appeals filed by the AP government and others challenging the order of a single judge given earlier.
In April last year, the single judge, while dealing with the petitions filed challenging the action of the police officers concerned in summoning them to their offices and illegally confining and indulging in physical and verbal abuse, had directed both the AP and Telangana governments to constitute the above within three months for redressal of grievances of the public in respect of police actions. This direction was passed on petitions filed challenging the action of the police officers concerned in summoning them to their offices and illegally confining and indulging in physical and verbal abuse. The judge made it clear that the recommendations of the above commission shall be binding on the state government.
Further, the single judge had said that the functions of the state security commission would include laying down the broad policies and giving directions for the performance of the preventive tasks and service-oriented functions of the police, evaluation of the performance of the state police and preparing a report thereon for being placed before the state legislature.
Besides, there shall be a police complaints authority at the district level to look into complaints against the police officers of and up to the rank of deputy superintendent of police. Similarly, there should be another police complaints authority at the state level to look into complaints against officers of the rank of superintendent of police and above. Aggrieved by the same, the AP government and others filed appeals before the division bench.On Wednesday, government counsel for home department Vidyavathi pointed out that the order of the single judge was beyond the scope of the directions issued by the Supreme Court on the issue.
Police excesses
This direction was passed on petitions filed challenging the action of the police officers concerned in summoning the public to their offices and illegally confining and indulging in physical and verbal abuse.